Men and women across the ages, many of them celebrated as great thinkers, have all realised an interest thing about how humans think…

The more we know about a particular subject the more we realise we’ve got left to learn.

It’s been commented on by philosophers. Confucius said that “Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance”.

It was written about by Shakespeare in As You Like it (“The fool doth think he is wise but the wise man knows himself to be a fool”).

It’s also been commented on by the famed English naturalist Mr Charles Darwin who said “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”

In modern times (1999) there were a series of experiments into this particular subject by two Psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger which suggested that high ability individuals may underestimate their relative competence but low ability or knowledge individuals may be more confident.

The strange thing about this particular study (called the Dunning-Kruger effect after the psychologists who performed this study) is that it wasn’t inspired by the words of Shakespeare or Confucius or even Darwin…

…but by a guy who tried to rob a bank with lemon juice on his face.

The reason?

This particular gentlemen assumed that as lemon juice can be used as invisible ink it would mean the CCTV wouldn’t recognise his face…which I think you’d agree is a level of stupidity you couldn’t even dream of to start to make up!

This made Dunning and Kruger start thinking about how people who might be rubbish at a particular task (robbing banks) might be illogically overconfident

This is in opposition to someone who is fairly good at ANY task (which I suppose could include robbing banks!) might appreciate more of the the variables, conduct more detailed planning and slowly try to improve at that particular task…but more importantly understanding that whilst they might be good they’re not perfect!

You see I think Dunning, Kruger, Darwin, Shakespeare and Confucius were right on the money on this one…

It’s why I try to read as widely as I can.

It’s why I’m always open to learning new stuff.

It’s why as an individual I’m always looking to improve.

and

It’s why I think these individual values bleed into how we run our business.

You see I believe that if you’re working with a financial planners or adviser that you can plan with absolute certainty or that the returns they can deliver a certainly going to be the best then there is one thing you can certainly do. It’s probably worth thinking about changing the professional you work with…

On the other hand if you’re working with a financial professional who may be confident but certainly not complacent and is always trying to improve, refine and develop their knowledge and skills (as well as taking the time to also work on their relationship with you) you’re probably in the right place.

You see at Cervello we believe that we’re pretty good at what we do when we work with our clients individuals and corporates alike.

However we also appreciate we’re not perfect…but we are on a continuous journey to continue to try to learn as well as apply this knowledge in what we do.

This means we’re always focused on delivering the right solutions for the client but appreciate that we need to constantly learn to make sure we continue to do this.

So, hopefully when Shakespeare talked about ‘the wise man knows he is a fool’ I sincerely hope that I continue to understand how foolish I am and how little I really know as this will continue to drive me and our business in the direction of constant and consistent improvement.

If you’d like to talk to us about our constant and consistent improvement as a business can help you don’t hesitate to get in touch on 01708 606202 or you can email us at cassiedaems@cervellofp.co.uk.